The Man Who Fell to Earth by William Tevis

By Silencewillfall, Blacksburg, VA

In William Tevis’ fantastic novel The Man Who Fell to Earth, there is an alien invasion and all the familiar tropes that go with it. There is a man with the power to stop it, a woman who becomes deeply involved, government agencies seeking to find the answers. However, the book is about none of these things.

Rather, it centers on one sole alien by the name of T.J. Newton. There are others of his race waiting off screen, three hundred in fact, but we only get to meet one of them. He is not a laser-gun-toting warlord set on domination, nor is he an invincible superpower who wows the puny humans with his near-supernatural abilities. Instead, he is vulnerable, perhaps even weak. His alien physiology means everything from jerking elevators to heat waves pose a danger.